Supergirl Season 6 Episode 8 recap: Welcome Back, Kara

The following article contains SPOILERS for Supergirl Season 6, Episode 8.

Supergirl Season 6 has finally made its long-awaited return to our screens, so it is time to find out how Kara is doing after finally escaping from the Phantom Zone.

After an extended hiatus due to the pandemic, the last daughter of Krypton has returned to our screens. The aptly titled episode of “Welcome Back, Kara” is possibly the best way to reintroduce Supergirl back into the fold. As the episode would go on, however, the title of this episode turned out to be twofold due to the return of a sense of love and family that had been missing for some time.

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Kara (Melissa Benoist) spent the first seven episodes of this season trapped in the Phantom Zone. Here, she experienced emotional, mental, and physical turmoil while trying to stay alive. On the other side of this Phantom Zone coin is that she also reunited with her thought-to-be dead father in Zor-El (Jason Behr). The two of them were able to lean on each other and survive until the rest of Team Supergirl found a way to rescue them.

Throughout the first act of the episode, some groundwork is laid down for the whole episode. Kara and Alex have the lovely reunion audiences have been waiting for, and Zor-El notes the technology Team Supergirl has from all kinds of alien species. Kara and her father agree to spend some time together on Earth before Zor-El travels to Argus City.

Supergirl Season 6, Episode 8: Kara Danvers returns to Catco

Somehow, after weeks and months away from work, Kara Danvers returns to her original stomping ground to find her secretly evil editor-in-chief giving her a hard time for being gone for so long and returning without a Pulitzer-quality article. While this is an understandable grievance from Andrea Rojas (Julie Gonzalo), it is just so easy to dislike everything Andrea says and does. Also, this dislike is increased exponentially when it is against the loveable Kara Danvers.

Following Kara and Zor-El stopping a satellite from hitting Earth (you know, a normal Tuesday activity), they discover a trash island off the coast of their city. Zor-El recognizes this trend, and after some analysis of Earth’s oceans, concludes that Earth and Krypton are going down the same way.

Feeling like he has a second chance to save a planet, Zor-El is able to blend the Kryptonian technology he knows with the technology from other alien species that Team Supergirl has in their possession and builds Oscar (named after the trash can living grouch). This former-Kelex is now an ethically cleaning trash disposal that Zor-El will use to help prevent Earth from being destroyed by the impending climate crisis.

Supergirl Season 6, Episode 8: Zor-El Miscalculates (…again)

While combining a myriad of alien technology seems like the best option, Zor-El finds out rather quickly that it most certainly is not. Because Oscar has dueling alien technology within him, it absorbs all the trash it is supposed to be disposing of and becomes a literal trash robot monster.

MORE: Supergirl star Melissa Benoist promises Kara-Lena relationship

Team Supergirl is able to do what they do best and work together to defeat Oscar. While Kara is incapacitated thanks to a shard of kryptonite, Alex (Chyler Leigh) steps up and is able to protect her Kryptonian sister, something that she has felt was impossible to do while Kara was in the Phantom Zone. Oscar is stopped thanks to Zor-El building a virus to stop his creation, and the world is saved (except for that whole impending doom because of climate change…).

"I was so focused on avoiding the past, I ran headfirst into all my old mistakes.I was so focused on avoiding the past, I ran headfirst into all my old mistakes."

The final scene between Kara and her father Zor-El makes this whole episode must-see for me. The father of Supergirl admits his faults when it comes to trying to save Krypton all those years ago and with these recent follies trying to save Earth. Zor-El says, “I was so focused on avoiding the past, I ran headfirst into all my old mistakes.” This quote relates to preventing planetary destruction, sure. However, it can be applied to so many more grounded and human aspects of life.

Since mental health awareness is such a strong passion of mine, I can’t help but apply it to disregarding one emotional trauma which leads to experiencing another preventable one. This line tells me and the whole Supergirl audience that the feelings of hope, love, and family on which this series was built are returning to the forefront. These were not necessarily gone, but they were pushed back for themes regarding political allegories and stopping the despicable Lex Luthor.

There are so many other stories just beginning. Lena (Katie McGrath) is returning to the home she had before she was adopted, Nia Nal (Nicole Maines) dreams of the dastardly Nyxly, and Kara finally opens up about her trauma and PTSD. All of this and more is coming with the remainder of the sixth season, and I am here for it.

Supergirl Season 6 returns to The CW next Tuesday, August 31, at 9 p.m. ET.

The second half of this season is set up to cover a lot of interesting and exciting topics. Let us know which one you are excited about most in the comments below!